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Three years ago, Allan Seymour was working full time as a junior estimator at a millwork company and completing his construction project management certificate at Toronto's George Brown College at night. Today, he's a project co-ordinator at Limen Group Ltd., a general and masonry contractor with offices in Ontario and British Columbia and a range of projects across the country.

"I completed the course in 2009, when I heard the Limen Group was looking for people to train," says Seymour. "A month later, I was learning the trade from the ground up. Right from the start, people like Arran Brannigan, our vice-president of operations, put their hands on my shoulder and showed me the direction in which they wanted me to go."

Seymour notes that although he was being groomed for a supervisory position, the company insisted he develop hands-on trade experience first.

"They pushed me to get into the field and do everything from feeling the mortar to laying the blocks to getting onto the scaffolding," he says. "That's the bread and butter of our business. The company employs more than 600 people in the field so there's no shortage of experience and educational backgrounds from which to learn."

Seymour is currently supervising the company's masonry sub-contract at Toronto's Bridgepoint Health development, which requires a combination of stonework, brick and concrete masonry. His responsibilities range from a detailed preparation of documents outlining the scope of the company's work, to scheduling the activities of workers, ordering materials, co-ordinating efforts with the general contractor and invoicing.

"One of the things I love about my job is that no two projects are alike, and there's no such thing as a conventional project," says Seymour. "Bridgepoint is a very large-scale stone project in which there's an unusual emphasis on the use of stone and masonry, requiring remarkably different applications and techniques from stone facades to stonework in the lobby. Right now, I'm ordering a specific type of stone from Owen Sound which is more than two hours away from downtown Toronto, so even the logistics of delivery are a challenge."

Seymour says the traditional route to project management used to be a slow process in which managers emerged from the ranks of tradespeople. People now enter the construction field aiming for those positions.

"I think project managers are a different breed of individual who thrive on handling all aspects of a project, rather than focusing on one skill," he says. "Technology has transformed the position so that a knowledge of scheduling programs and an understanding of digital blueprints and drawings is critical."

Seymour advises people who are interested in project management to complete the necessary education, then look for an employer who is keen on developing their talents.

"It's not been an easy task to get where I am," he says. "I put in a lot of extra hours and have requested a lot of additional responsibilities. I've been willing to travel to projects in Hamilton, Ottawa and Kingston. If you put all of your head into a company that believes in you, you can achieve anything."

Motivated construction workers will see significant opportunities over the next decade, according to a report released in the spring by the Construction Sector Council (CSC), an industry-led group. The report indicates that Canada will require an estimated 319,000 new construction workers from 2012 to 2020, just to keep pace with increased construction demand.

"Construction in Canada continues to show growth and this is creating employment opportunities," says Rosemary Sparks, executive director of the CSC. "This, combined with baby boomers moving into retirement, has the construction industry thinking about where it will find the next generation of tradespeople.

"We are entering into a competitive job market and the industry is going to have to increase its efforts to recruit the brightest and the best from all sources of labour," she adds, "including youth, women, aboriginal people, and newcomers to Canada. Young people looking at career options can certainly look to construction to offer them a career in a growing field with opportunities not only in the trades but also advancement to management and entrepreneurship as contractors."

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